Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

I am crazy about comics. Do any of you read any comics, graphic novels, webcomicss, etc.?

Here's what I read (and recommend):

Another Castle: Princess tries to bring down an evil king from the inside. The first chapter is eh but the others are great.

Heartthrob: (I'll steal the tagline, it's pretty good.) Callie has the heart of a criminal mastermind. Too bad it's not hers. It's a 70s heist story with a romance and ghostly twist!

Princeless: Princess decides that she doesn't need a prince to save her (hmmm...sounds familiar) so she goes off to save her sisters. There is a spinoff called Raven: The Pirate Princess. The comic pretty much changed the way I saw comics.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: I generally don't read superhero comics, but this series is a comedy about a college student with the powers of a squirrel. It's much cooler than it sounds.

Montress: In an alternate matriarchal version of old Asia, there was a war between the humans and the Arcanics. Maika's mother is dead and she is trying to find her killer and also deal with a monster in her arm. A darkly beautiful, but harsh story.

Tomboy: (spoiler) A young girl becomes a vigilante at her boyfriend's murder. I love this comic with a passion.

The Wicked + The Divine: Every 90 years, 12 gods are incarnated into young adults. It's fame, fortune, and fashion (plus some other stuff) but they only have two years to live it. And there's also some murder and suspicious stuff going on. This comic is amazing in every way. It and Tomboy are my favorites.

Lady Killer: Beautiful 50s wife has a double life: a violent assassin. This comic is great and has art to match.

Prez: 19 year old girl is elected President of a messed up USA. Instead of silly teenage stuff, we get smart and intelligent, while still amusing, political satire.

Hopeless Savages: Punk rock star parents grow up, get married and have kids. We get spies, first love, international travels, and more.

Courtney Crumrin: Girl moves to a small town and discorers magic. This comic is sarcastic and Gothic, while also being heartwarming and relatable.

Agents of the Realm: College age Magical girls! Wilde Life: Guy moves to new city, meets lots of supernatural creatures.Lonely Vincent: Same plot as the above, but for a younger audience. Todd Allison and the Petunia Violet: This comic is really hard to describe, but basically, comedy, bombings, train conductor assassins, mysterious siblings, overreactions, and lots of shipping fuel. Ava's Demon: Girl makes a pact with a demon to defeat the demon's opponent.Princess Princess: Cute finished romance with princesses. Broken Telephone: Finished story about crimes and miscommunication.Sleepless Domain: Magical Girl murder mystery!Kiwi Blitz: Girl wants to be a super hero with her giant mecha.Alice and the Nightmare: Pretty story about a college girl set in Wonderland.Agnes Quill: Girl detective talks to ghosts. Pibgorn: Fairy and succubus have often sensual adventures with demons, time travel, romance, aliens, vampires, genies, robots, and classical music.

Do you read any of these? What comics do you read? (If you are a fan of any of the above, I love talking about this stuff.)

Last edited by Revolutionary (06-01-2016 05:13:13 PM)

Rule 1: You can never be too sure what will happen next... -Ruby Redfort

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

I'm not sure I count Pigborn as a webcomic, since it's still printed and designed for print, but the author is one of my favorite artists who I almost always disagree with. I prefer 9 Chickweed Lane, though. Prettier. Better cast.

I was just thinking about making a comics/non-manga thread, but never have the heart to do it. While I like my pretense of anonymity here, some know my sideline as a comics critic.

I just reread the first volume of Lady S, last night, by Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Almond, about a former thief and political exile hiding as the adopted daughter of a US political player and being pressed into espionage by those who would exploit her past and some early Get Fuzzy and Foxtrot strips.

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

A Train Called Love ends in a few weeks, at which point, I don't think I have any monthlies on tap, except Patsy Walker.

I know Ennis has got Preacher on the air right now, and The Boys in the works, but I'd much rather his shoot-em-up sex comedy ensemble of lovers and gangsters adapted to screen. On late night Cinemax or whatever is necessary. Most adorable and heartfelt comic where someone blew a horse, eeeeeeevvvveeerrrrr.

My Brain is the Wakaba and Shiori Funtime Hour. With limited commercial interruption.

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

I wish she would go back to the original recurring characters (the evil queen, gay warlock and always getting screwed over dude - with the occasional appearance of the icy freeze-your-dick lady) but even still it's hella funny.

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

YamPuff wrote:

I wish she would go back to the original recurring characters (the evil queen, gay warlock and always getting screwed over dude - with the occasional appearance of the icy freeze-your-dick lady) but even still it's hella funny.

Like with Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics, I like that I'm not having to pay attention to incredibly long comedy saga. I'm pretty good with just single-strip gags or, in Oglaf's case, even one-off casts. They just need to keep it funny.

I suck at following serials.

My Brain is the Wakaba and Shiori Funtime Hour. With limited commercial interruption.

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

Recently I've been following a comic called Snot Girl. It was written by the author of Scott Pilgrim vs the World and I also really enjoy the artist's style. It only has one issue out so far but I can't wait to see more The title is somewhat misleading, as the story is not about a girl with snot powers as I thought it was when i first glanced at it. It seems like it's going to be interesting nonetheless. I also flit between a lot of webcomics; too many for me to list off the top of my head. This is why I almost never catch up on anything. I also used to read manga more often but then I got lazy and i stopped. There are a few I do want to read in the future though so mayyybeee I will get off my butt and back into it.

:EDIT: I forgot to mention that there is a webcomic I can name that I check on every other day called Floraverse. It's very...unique and has a very beautiful coloring style. It seems worth mentioning on here because, like RGU, it contains a lot of symbolism and a plot/meaning that can get confusing but fun to decipher.

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

The anthology of autobiographic and biographic "confessional" comics and essays, The Secret Loves of Geek Girls has Utena on a poster in the frontispiece. And, some other allusions, in different pieces.

Thus "proving," again, that while not everyone loves SKU, all the best people do.

My Brain is the Wakaba and Shiori Funtime Hour. With limited commercial interruption.

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

Lezhin is a good place to find nice web comics - not expensive and great to know you are supporting the artist! Also a change of pace as I did get rather tired of manga. Nice to have some full color art plus the artists really incorporate the scrolling aspect of your browser/phone into the comic; Dark Heaven adds pacing by making you scroll over a blank screen for several seconds in between scenes or after a particularly impact moment. Or you'll scroll down over a gradient fading to black. It's a nice cinematic touch and perfect for digital graphic media.

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

pagetheplush wrote:

Recently I've been following a comic called Snot Girl. It was written by the author of Scott Pilgrim vs the World and I also really enjoy the artist's style. It only has one issue out so far but I can't wait to see more The title is somewhat misleading, as the story is not about a girl with snot powers as I thought it was when i first glanced at it. It seems like it's going to be interesting nonetheless.

Yooooo I've been reading Snotgirl too. Have you read any more since the new issues came out? I love its weird, small glimpses of creepiness, and then Lottie ignoring it and going along as her shallow self.Also as Revolutionary said in the original post, I also love WicDiv. I'm reading the series as the compilations of acts/arcs/whatevers come out (The Faust Act, Fandemonium, etc), so I'm pretty far behind but IT"S GETTING SOOO GOOD AAAA

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

I love both WicDiv and Snotgirl.

SG is such an interesting comic to me because of the irreverent tone compared to what's occurring. I really want to get a print edition.As usual, WD remains intense and dark yet beautiful. Always a favorite. The most recent issue reminded me of Utena, with Sakhmet saying "Don't believe in miracles." and it being printed on the back in orange.

Two of my favorite comics, Shutter and Tomboy are ending this month. Any thing else I should be reading?

Last edited by Revolutionary (07-10-2017 03:37:21 PM)

Rule 1: You can never be too sure what will happen next... -Ruby Redfort

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

Another WicDiv fan here! The Wicked and the Divine is definitely my favorite of the comics I've followed recently and is the only one I think I consistently keep up with. I don't want to derail this thread too much, but I'd love to hear anyone's favorite characters and predictions of future events. (Maybe we should make another one?) While the main storyline is certainly the most gripping, I also really enjoyed the 1831 and 455 standalone issues which show glimpses of two previous pantheons-- sadly they aren't included with the trade volumes but I do recommend checking them out, and I hope there will be at least one more of these for the 1923 pantheon we were briefly introduced to!

Another title I took particular interest in was Zodiac Starforce, a magical girl mini-series that was approved for another story arc and just recently released another issue. I have high hopes that with some additional chapters we will get to see a little more backstory. I actually liked the choice to sort of set the story after the girls had already ended their magical girl team quite a bit. I think having the full story revealed over time might be more interesting than getting everything upfront, but I do understand the criticism that we were only given brief references to major events and that simply wasn't enough-- at the time the series was not confirmed to continue after 5 chapters, so that wish for a better explanation was valid. With more issues on the way, however, I'd personally opt to suspend any critiques like that for now.

For show-related comics, I spent a long time following the Buffy comics, but fell off maybe 2 years ago, and only ever read a few of the Angel comics, a few of the Willow, none of the Spike... still, I have a certain fondness for them. I sporadically follow the Adventure Time comics, particularly those centered around Princess Bubblegum, Marceline, or the Fiona and Cake spinoffs.

I'll be interested in checking out Snotgirl based on the recommendations here!

Other comics I enjoyed semi-recently, some running, some completed already:

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

dollface wrote:

Another WicDiv fan here! The Wicked and the Divine is definitely my favorite of the comics I've followed recently and is the only one I think I consistently keep up with. I don't want to derail this thread too much, but I'd love to hear anyone's favorite characters and predictions of future events. (Maybe we should make another one?) While the main storyline is certainly the most gripping, I also really enjoyed the 1831 and 455 standalone issues which show glimpses of two previous pantheons-- sadly they aren't included with the trade volumes but I do recommend checking them out, and I hope there will be at least one more of these for the 1923 pantheon we were briefly introduced to!

I'm up for that! I've got lots of theories and ideas to discuss. I wasn't a big fan of 1831 (it got better on reread, though) but I loved 455. It is confirmed the next special is the '20s, so that'll be pretty cool. I think the specials will get their own trade before the series wraps up.

dollface wrote:

Another title I took particular interest in was Zodiac Starforce, a magical girl mini-series that was approved for another story arc and just recently released another issue. I have high hopes that with some additional chapters we will get to see a little more backstory. I actually liked the choice to sort of set the story after the girls had already ended their magical girl team quite a bit. I think having the full story revealed over time might be more interesting than getting everything upfront, but I do understand the criticism that we were only given brief references to major events and that simply wasn't enough-- at the time the series was not confirmed to continue after 5 chapters, so that wish for a better explanation was valid. With more issues on the way, however, I'd personally opt to suspend any critiques like that for now.

I really liked the original miniseries, but the recent issue was a huge disappointment for me. I think mostly because of the coloring (Paulina's not doing it, which i think is a huge misstep, she's amazing.) Still give it a try, though.

dollface wrote:

I wasn't a huge fan of IP nor Plutona, but I like the others. Phonogram is probably my favorite; I reread Singles Club last February and Laura Heaven and her fave band the Long Blondes just really resonated with me.

Rule 1: You can never be too sure what will happen next... -Ruby Redfort

Re: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Webcomics

I haven't read the newest Zodiac Starforce yet myself, but I've heard similar views expressed. Can't speak to the coloring yet, but plot-wise I didn't know how to feel about the introduction of some kind of Prince character-- I'll still give it a shot and hope this story arc maybe ramps up a bit!

In some ways I would've liked a different ending to Plutona [and I felt the eerie imagery and the isolated feeling of the kids facing mortality in such a way was a solid enough basis for a short mini-series, so with no intention to continue onward in further issues, reviving Plutona didn't feel like it needed to be done and the plot seemed to stumble a bit following that] but I still enjoyed it. I'm quite a fan of "dark" (a catch-all term here) childhood stories; between Plutona and Paper Girls, though, I'd recommend the latter more. Of the ones listed I would say Infinite Loop impressed me the least in execution, but I did like the premise and gave it points for a few rather striking pages.

ah, man does not exist; ah, within the darkness; ah, the sound of the waves